Shall  the  United  States  become  the 
Leader  of  Repudiation? 

THE  DANGER  AND  THE  REMEDY. 

REPEAL  OF  THE  RESUMPTION  ACT. 

SPEECHES 

OF 

Mr.  S.  B.  CHITTENDEN, 

OF  NEW  YORK, 

IN  THK 

House  of  Representatives, 

November  13  and  14,  1877. 


WASHINGTON. 
1877. 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


Shall  the  United  States  become  the 
Leader  of  Repudiation? 


THE  DANGER  AND  THE  REMEDY. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  RESUMPTION  ACT. 


SPEECHES 

OF 

Mr.  S.  B.  CHITTENDEN 

OF  NEW  YORK, 

IN  THE 

House  of  Representatives, 


November  13  and  14,  1877. 


WASHINGTON. 

1  877. 


Digitized  by 

the  Internet , 

Archive 

in  2013 

http://archive.org/details/shallunitedstateOOchit 


SPEECH 


OF 

Mr.  S.  V>.  CHITTENDEN. 


November  13,  1877. 

The  House  having  under  epnsideration  the  hill  (H.  R.  No.  805)  to  repeal  the  third 
ection  of  the  act  entitled  "An  act  to  provide  for  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ents"— 

Mr.  CHITTENDEN  said:  , 
Mr.  Speaker  :  I  send  to  the  Clerk's  desk  a  memorial  of  the  National 
Board  of  Trade  and  an  amendment  in  the  form  of  a  substitute,  which 
I  ask  may  be  rend  and  printed  in  connection  with  my  remarks. 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

MEMORIAL. 

The  memorial  of  the  National  Board  of  Trade  to  the  honorable  the  Senate  aad 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assemhled. 

The  undersigned  heg  leave  respectfully  to  represent  unto  your  honorable  bodies 
that  the  National  Board  of  Trade,  at  its  late  annual  meeting,  having  under  its  . 
consideration  the  question  of  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  people  of  the  United  States,  adopted  the  following  resolution,  to  wit: 

Resolved,  That  in  the  opinion  of  the  National  Board  of  Trade,  Congress  has  omitted 
to  pass  the  necessary  measures  to  carry  the  resumption  act  into  effect,  and  it  there- 
fore recommends  that  Congress  should  enact  a  law  authorizing  the  funding  of  the 
legal-tender  notes  in  bonds  running  forty  years,  and  bearing  4  per  cent,  interest 
per  annum,  payable  quarterly,  to  an  amount  not  exceeding  $10,000,000  per  month, 
until  the  legal-tender  notes  shall  be  at  par  with  coin. 

Respectfully  submitted,  by  order  and  on  behalf  of  the  national  board  of  trade. 

FREDERICK  FRALEY, 

President,  Philadelphia. 

Charles  Randolph, 

Secretary,  Chicago. 
Washington,  1877. 

Mr.  CHITTENDEN.    Now  let  the  Clerk  read  the  amendment  I  pro- 
pose as  a  substitute  for  the  pending-  bill. 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Strike  out  all  after  the  enacting  clause  and  in  lieu  thereof  insert  the  following: 

Whereas  the  legal-tender  notes  of  the  United  States,  when  first  issued,  were,  by 
a  provision  of  the  act  authorizing  them,  fundable  at  the  option  of  holders  into 
bonds  of  the  United  States  bearing  6  per  cent,  annual  interest;  and 

Whereas  but  for  such  provision  for  funding  neither  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury nor  either  House  of  Congress  would  have  consented  to  their  issue ; 

And  whereas  the  exigencies  of  a  prolonged  civil  war  led  to  the  temporary  with- 
drawal of  the  said  funding  provision  of  the  legal-tender  act ; 

And  whereas  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  solemnly  and  firmly  bound, 
by  act  of  Congress,  approved  January  14,  1675,  to  provide  for  the  redemption  in 
coin  of  its  legal-tender  notes  on  and  after  the  1st  day  of  January,  1879  ; 

And  whereas  the  United  States  must,  like  all  other  debtors,  public  or  private, 
provide  for  and  pay  all  its  honest  obligations  to  the  extent  of  its  means  and  resources, 
or  be  discredited  and  dishonored :  Therefore, 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  be,  and  is 
hereby,  authorized  to  withdraw,  as  soon  as  the  necessary  preparations  can  be  made, 
the  legal-tender  notes  of  the  United  States,  whenever  presented  by  the  holders 


4 


thereof,  and  issue  therefor,  dollar  for  dollar  of  face-value,  coupon  or  registered 
bonds  of  the  United  States  in  the  spirit  of  the  original  legal-tender  act :  Provided, 
That  the  bonds  authorized  by  this  act  shall  be  payable  in  gold  at  the  expiration  of 
forty  years  from  the  1st  day  of  January,  1877,  and  bear  interest  at  the  rate  of  4  per 
cent,  per  annum,  payable  quarterly  in  gold. 

Sec.  2.  That  the  bonds  authorized  by  this  act  shall  be  available  for  deposit  in  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States  for  banking  purposes  under  the  various  provisions 
of  law  relating  to  national  banks. 

Sec.  3.  That  the  legal-tender  notes  received  in  exchange  for  bonds  under  this  act 
shall  be  destroyed,  under  such  regulations  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  may 
prescribe. 

Sec.  4.  That  all  laws  inconsistent  with  this  act  are  hereby  repealed. 

Mr.  CHITTENDEN.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  constrained  to  ask  the 
protection  of  the  Chair  against  all  interruptions. 

Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  the  bill  we  are  considering  means 
downright  repudiation;  just  that.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  promise 
of  my  Government  to  pay  me  $10.  The  date  of  payment  is  fixed  by 
law  upon  the  statute-book.  The  Government  must  keep  faith  with 
me  ;  failing  in  that,  it  becomes  the  leader  of  all  defaulter's  and  re- 
pudiators,  including  towns,  cities,  and  States.  The  point  of  honor  is 
central  and  vital  in  this  discussion.  But,  before  coming  to  that,  I 
have  to  brush  away  some  strange  mistakes  made  by  the  gentleman 
from  Kansas  in  opening  the  debate. 

First,  1  regret  that  the  gentleman  misunderstood  my  opinion  of  the 
resumption  act.  I  concede  that  some  additional  legislation  is  nec- 
essary to  make  the  act  finally  effective;  but  the  absence  of  such 
legislation  does  not  in  the  slightest  degree  weaken  the  sacred  force 
of  the  obligation  as  it  stands  upon  the  statue-book,  on  the  contrary 
it  re-inforces  that  obligation,  leaving  Government  absolutely  without 
excuse. 

In  the  second  place,  I  am  sorry  that  the  gentleman  from  Kansas 
was  green  enough  to  take  into  his  confidences  that  monster  of  infla- 
tion, who  told  him  that  there  were  four  hundred  thousand  street  pau- 
pers iu  the  metropolis.  The  history  of  all  paper-money  delusions  on 
earth  will  be  searched  in  vain  for  the  equal  of  that  fellow. 

Finally,  I  deeply  regret  that  after  all  his  patient  and  profound 
study  of  finance  the  gentleman  seems  to  have  discovered  that  the 
commercial  distress  and  shrinkage  of  values  under  which  the  country 
groans  have  been  brought  about  by  enforced  contraction  of  the  cur- 
rency under  the  resumption  act  of  1875.  I  beg  leave  to  say  to  the 
gentleman  from  Kansas,  and  to  all  unfortunates  who  roam  over  the 
highways  and  by-ways  of  the  nation,  preaching  his  doctrines  to  the 
•great  injury  of  honest  people,  that  the  resumption  act  is  no  more 
responsible  for  the  present  sufferings  of  New  York  and  Kansas  than 
it  is  for  the  frozen  feet  of  the  Turks  in  the  Shipka  Pass ;  not  a  bit 
more! 

It  is  high  time  for  members  of  Congress  and  all  men  of  sense  to 
drop  and  renounce  forever  all  such  nonsense.  We  have  records  which 
no  man's  ingenuity  or  audacity  can  change  which  enforce  and  estab- 
lish our  position. 

As  late  as  the  20th  of  October  last,  or  about  three  weeks  ago,  there 
were  more  greenbacks  in  use  than  at  any  time  from  1868  to  1873 ; 
more  than  when  we  were  building  ten  thousand  miles  of  railroads  per 
annum  and  otherwise  living  and  scheming  as  if  all  the  reserved 
resources  of  this  continent  could  be  developed  for  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  our  generation. 

We  have  to-day  in  use  only  about  a  million  and  a  half  less  than  we 
had  when  we  constructed  those  sham  fortunes  which  crazed  the 
whole  nation  prior  to  the  great  explosion  in  1873. 


5 


No  man  outside  of        will  deny  these  statements  of  fact. 

Now  place  along-side  the  foregping  facts  the  following  :  For  about 
eight  years  prior  to  1873,  the  brain  power,  labor  power,  and  money 
power  of  the  country,  joined  by  the  land-giviug  power  of  Congress, 
were  to  an  uncommon  extent  devoted  to  railroad  industries.  It 
amounted  to  a  railroad  mania.  These  industries  suddenly  collapsed. 
The  capital  invested  was  lost.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  labor  of 
the  country  was  displaced.  It  was  violently  switched  off  its  track 
and  plunged  into  a  dee])  pit  of  enforced  idleness  and  waiting.  There 
it  has  remained:  there  it  is  now.  Of  course  the  power  of  the  people 
To  consume  and  pay  for  the  products  of  labor  is  immensely  crippled. 
Enterprise  is  dead.  Incomes  have  disappeared.  Wages  are  reduced. 
The  volume  of  business  is  diminished.  Prices  have  fallen.  We  have 
sharp  contraction  on  all  sides,  and  in  all  things,  by  the  force  of  laws 
as  immutable  as  the  law  of  gravitation,  the  greenback  currency  only 
excepted !  It  has  required  just  four  years  to  get  rid  of  the  new  emis- 
sion of  twenty-six  millions  issued  after  the  crash  of  1873  by  a  freak 
of  legislation  which  history  has  already  located  in  a  lunatic  asylum. 

Take  three  men,  where  you  find  them,  who  have  for  a  long  time  en- 
joyed and  shared  a  daily  ration  of  a  dozen  bottles  of  good  brandy. 
Take  away  one  man  ami  continue  the  same  ration,  and  what  will  be- 
come of  the  other  two  men  if  compelled  to  drink  half  a  dozen  bottles 
apiece  daily  ? 

The  answer  to  that  question  will  throw  vivid  light  upon  the  exist- 
ing currency  illusion,  and  the  argument  is  not  impaired  by  the  fact 
that  the  two  victims  clamor  wildly  for  another  ration  ! 

Nobody  ever  can  compute  the  cost  of  the  fatal  issue  of  twenty-six 
millions  of  greenbacks  in  1873  to  which  I  have  just  referred.  The 
most  serious  and  distressing  disappointments  and  disasters  of  the  last 
three  years  are  directly  traceable  to  that  act  of  lunacy,  and  the  end 
is  not  yet ! 

But,  says  the  gentleman  from  the  West,  the  banks  have  contracted 
their  currency !  Why  not  ?  Government  has  no  more  right  to  say 
how  many  notes  the  bank  shall  circulate  than  it  has  to  enact  how 
many  acres  a  farmer  shall  cultivate.  The  banks  are  equally  free  to 
expand  and  are  now  expanding  their  currency.  The  national-bank 
act  admits  of  such  expansion  to  the  full  amount  of  the  bonded  debt : 
say  82,000, 000,000.  Expansion  is  profit,  contraction  is  loss.  Is  it  not 
tolerably  certain  that  under  such  a  system  there  will  be  all  the  cur- 
rency out  that  can  be  used  honestly  and  properly  ? 

But  the  gentleman  shouts  again  he  can  get  no  money  in  the  West ! 
They  are  mistaken.    I  know  how  it  is  myself,  for  I  have  been  there. 

You  have  money  instantly  at  command  for  everything  you  raise 
which  the  world  wants. 

You  and  I  both  want  money  to  resurrect  our  old  and  wild  invest- 
ments which  we  do  not  deserve  to  get  and  never  can  borrow  on  lauds 
and  improvements  which  have  cost  us  four  or  five  times  their  value. 

Let  me  explain  what  I  mean,  so  that  it  may  be  clearly  understood 
by  every  man  from  the  North  or  South,  East  or  West,  who  will  take 
the  trouble  to  give  me  a  moment's  attention. 

All  Congressmen  of  our  time  have  heard  of  Du  Luth. 

I  know  a  man  who  belongs  to  the  class  frequently  denouuced  iu 
these  Halls  with  fluent  and  ignorant  rhetoric  as  "  bondholders,"  who 
was  foolish  enough,  soon  after  the  eloquent  gentleman  from  Ken- 
tucky made  himself  and  Du  Luth  famous  forevermore,  to  send  out 
there  aud  buy  a  corner  lot,  on  a  portion  of  which  he  built  a  house 
for  homes  and  business  purposes. 


6 


The  total  expenditure  in  cash  eight  years  ago  was  $10,000,  leaving 
a  slice  of  land  unimproved. 

The  property  has  cost  its  owner,  including  interest  and  taxes  and 
deducting  income  to  the  present  time,  more  than  $15,000.  He  is  will- 
ing to  sell  it  all  for  $2,500.  The  dreadful  banks  will  not  loan  a  cent  on 
it.  Why  should  t  hey  ?  And  yet  there  is  plenty  of  money  in  Du  Luth 
to-day  to  buy  every  horse,  bushel  of  wheat,  and  prairie  chicken 
brought  to  market. 

This  case,  Mr.  Speaker,  truthfully  suggests  the  real  trouble  we  have 
to  deal  with.  There  are  thousands  just  like  it  in  the  city  and  State 
of  New  York.  No  shouting  of  demagogues,  no  paper  money  device  is 
equal  to  the  exigency  upon  us.  It  is  cruel  mockery  and  damnable 
wickedness  to  hide  the  truth  any  longer  from  the  people.  It  is  a 
crime  against  the  omnipotent  forces  of  nature,  which  with  boundless 
generosity  invite  the  nation  to  patient  industry,  uprightness,  and 
frugal  living,  for  us  to  try  to  conceal  our  scars  or  cure  our  disease  as 
with  a  garment  of  irredeemable  paper  money,  or  with  silver  dollars 
worth  but  ninety-two  cents  a  piece !  That  was  the  price  on  Monday 
week  ;  they  are  two  cents  cheaper  to-day. 

In  the  case  I  have  cited,  the  sufferer  bought  no  more  than  he  could 
pay  for.  He  simply  threw  to  the  winds  his  own  in  a  ridiculous  wild 
venture.  If  he  had  bought  more  and  mortgaged  the  whole  to  some 
luckless  bank,  he  himself  would  have  been  in  the  poor-house  to-day 
and  not  here. 

My  one  practical  observation  is,  that  the  limitation  of  our  paper 
currency  should  be,  and  will  be  in  the  end,  left  to  adjust  itself  under 
a  free  banking  system,  guided  by  the  eager,  intelligent,  and  aggress- 
ive enterprise  of  our  people. 

There  is  but  one  alternative,  namely :  An  exclusive  greenback  cur- 
rency, subject  at  all  times  to  the  caprice  of  Congress. 

If  any  one  asks  me  what  that  policy  will  lead  to,  I  refer  them  sor- 
rowfully to  the  startling  vote  given  here  on  Monday  for  the  silver  bill. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  come  closer  to  the  bill  before  the  House. 
I  make  no  reflections.  I  concede  that  its  authors  are  my  peers  ;  but  I 
denounce  their  work  as  hurtful,  discreditable,  and  without  excuse. 
The  issue  presented  admits  of  no  compromise.  There  is  no  way  to 
average  honesty  with  dishonesty.  There  is  no  neutral  ground  between 
right  and  wrong.  The  popular  notion  that  it  is  the  duty  of  law-mak- 
ers to  do  the  best  they  can  with  questions  which  divide  the  public 
judgment,  does  not  apply  here. 

It  is  apparent  to  the  whole  country  and  to  the  civilized  commerce 
of  mankind,  since  the  votes  of  Monday,  November  4,  that  an  irre- 
deemable-paper-money delusion  has  done  its  perfect  work  in  the  minds 
and  purposes  of  a  large  majority  of  the  popular  branch  of  our  National 
Legislature,  and  that  it  remains  for  the  people  to  arouse  themselves 
to  know  the  truth  and  save  their  priceless  heritage  from  a  bondage 
only  less  terrible  than  human  slavery  itself. 

I  lay  it  down,  Mr.  Speaker,  as  a  proposition  firmly  rooted  in  the 
deepest  convictions  of  every  thoughtful  and  upright  citizen,  that  the 
national  integrity  shall  not  be  sacrificed,  and  I  declare  to  you,  to  my 
constituents,  and"  to  the  people  of  the  whole  country,  that  there  never 
has  been  a  day  in  American  history  since  the  days  of  colonial  depend- 
ence when  our  national  honor  and  welfare  were  so  imperiled  as  now. 
Say  not  that  this  is  an  extravagant  and  heated  statement.  What 
have  we  witnessed  ?  What  did  this  House  of  Representatives  do  on 
Monday,  November  4  ?  It  passed  a  currency  bill,  which  involves  the 
one  we  are  now  considering,  without  a  syllable  of  debate,  which,  if 


7 


enacted  into  law,  is  estimated  to  take  t  wenty  millions,  more  or  lews, 
from  the  hard  earnings  of  the  depositors  in  savings  banks  alone  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  and  which  will  otherwise,  in  the  event  sup- 
posed, result  in  disasters  and  loss  to  every  State  in  the  Union  which 
no  man  can  measure  <>r  6Sl  [mate.  Let  me  say  here  that  1  ha  ve  reason 
to  think  that  at  least  half  a  million  of  men  in  the  Empire  State  are 
prepared  to  send  their  protest  to  Congress  against  the  silver  abouui- 
nalion,  in  the  name  of  common  honesty. 

Why  this  frantic  haste  ?  There  was  never  snch  a  proceeding  here 
before,  involving  so  much.  I  am  assured  by  those  who  served  here, 
when  the  gentlemen  who  now  rule  the  House  and  the  country  were 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Potomac  with  their  guns,  that  no  such  hur- 
ried proceedings  were  tolerated.    What  is  the  meaning  of  it  ? 

It  has  been  intimated  that  the  silver  and  auti-resumptiou  bills  are 
the  sullen  reverberation  of  the  late  Ohio  election.  It  is  said  that 
eighty  thousand  republican  machine  politicians  refused  to  vote  in 
Ohio  because  their  own  upright  leader  kept  his  promises  faithfully 
to  the  country,  and  that  repeal  and  ruin  are  the  penalty  to  be  exacted 
by  the  successful  democracy. 

I  cut  the  following  from  a  late  Baltimore  paper  which  throws  a 
little  light,  perhaps,  on  my  inquiry : 

I  have  come,  he  said,  to  tell  the  laboring-men  of  Baltimore  and  of  the  eighteenth 
ward  that  I  stand  here  to-night  in  the  face  of  that  history,  now  made,  hut  not  yet 
•written,  by  which  the  democratic  party  has  fulfilled  its  promise  of  being  a  party 
in  the  interest  of  the  whole  people.  In  my  last  speech  to  you  I  sought  to  convince 
you  that  your  depressed  condition  was  due  to  the  legislation  of  the  republican 
party,  and  that  prosperity  would  only  return  to  you  when  the  shackles  thus  im- 
posed were  stricken  from  you.  [Applause.]  I  tell  you  now  that  by  the  action  of 
the  democratic  Congress  this  morning  these  shackles  have  been  stricken  from  you. 
It  has  declared  that  there  shall  no  longer  be  one  money  for  the  banker  and  the. 
bondholder  and  another  for  the  people.  It  will  now  go  further  and  will  to-morrow 
morning  pass  the  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  noxious  resumption  act.  [Applause.] 

Again,  from  the  same  paper  and  the  same  speech  : 

"We  have  commenced  by  the  resumption  of  silver ;  we  will  follow  it  to-morrow 
by  the  repeal  of  the  resumption  act,  and  we  will  go  further  and  make  au  equaliza- 
tion of  taxes  by  restoring  the  income  tax. 

We  have  here,  it  will  be  observed,  resumption  of  silver  secured  to- 
day ;  repeal  of  the  noxious  resumption  act  to-morrow,  (they  did  not 
get  on  quite  so  fast  as  promised;)  and  equalization  of  taxes  by  restor- 
ing the  income  tax  shortly.  The  last  is  a  little  mixed,  but  it  looks  to 
me  like  a  proposition  to  equalize  things  generally. 

Mr.  BLACKBURN.    Will  the  gentleman  allow  me  

The  SPEAKER.  The  gentleman  from  New  York  stated  at  the  out- 
set of  his  remarks  that  he  would  not  permit  himself  to  be  inter- 
rupted. 

Mr.  BLACKBURN.  I  hope  the  gentleman  will  not  decline  to  allow 
me  to  say  he  is  using  a  report  given  in  a  newspaper  which  was  never 
submitted  to  me  for  examination.  The  points,  as  he  has  quoted 
them  and  as  I  catch  them,  I  here  reiterate,  and  only  express  my  deep 
regret  that  the  resumption  aet  has  not  already  been  repealed  and 
those  shackles  already  stricken  off. 

Mr.  CHITTENDEN.  Again,  I  find  the  following  in  a  highly  re- 
spectable New  York  paper" of  October  25,  cut  from  a  paper  published 
in  Missouri: 

Nearly  every  city  in  the  entire  "West  is  hopelessly  in  debt.  All  are  moving  for 
a  compromise.  If  they  fail  in  that,  the  next  thing  will  be  flat  repudiation.  Much 
as  we  regret  it,  this  is  the  feeling  of  a  majority  of  the  people.  The  majority  rules, 
and  the  sentiment  is  " compromise  or  repudiate."  we  wish  it  were  otherwise ; 
but  it  is  not,  and  creditors  may  as  well  know  the  truth  at  once. 


8 


Here  we  have  it,  Mr.  Speaker.  Repudiate!  That,  in  truth,  is  the 
word.  1  do  not  exaggerate.  It  comes  as  a  rushing,  mighty  wind 
comes!  We  are  now  shaken  by  a  wild  blast  of  a  grand  currency  illu- 
sion, which  has  swept  over  the  plains  of  the  South,  the  prairies  of 
the  West,  carrying  this  House  by  storm  on  Monday,  and  threatening 
to  ingulf  the  national  integrity ! 

The  bill  before  us  justifies  the  most  serious  apprehensions.  It  is  a 
plain  breach  of  contract.  Its  monstrous  and  criminal  impolicy  is  also 
only  equaled  by  the  silver  bill,  as  is  perfectly  apparent  to  all  who 
know  the  present  condition  of  the  commerce  of  our  country  with 
other  leading  nations. 

The  currents  of  trade  have  set  strongly  in  favor  of  resumption  for 
more  than  two  years,  and  now  the  miseries  of  two  great  nations  en- 
gaged in  war  unite,  as  by  a  special  providence,  to  assure  the  restora- 
tion of  our  currency  to  a  gold  standard. 

It  is  almost  universally  believed  by  men  most  largely  and  intimately 
connected  with  our  foreign  exchanges  that  but  for  the  meddling  by 
Congress  gold  will  cease  to  be  merchandise  in  New  York,  and  be  re- 
stored to  use  as  currency  within  ninety  days.  There  is  nothing  im- 
probable in  this  belief.  The  currents  have  all  run  in  that  direction 
for  a  long  time, "and  it  becomes  more  and  more  evident,  day  by  day, 
that  they  will  so  continue  to  run. 

Some  of  the  promoters  of  this  bill  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  true 
state  of  things.  They  see  that  they  have  not  a  moment  to  spare  if 
they  are  to  make  greenbacks  forever  irredeemable,  as  their  bill,  if 
enacted,  will  do.  The  crisis  is  upon  them.  It  is  now  or  never.  With 
bank-notes  once  again  at  par  with  gold,  the  people  will  understand 
the  case  and  not  only  insist  upon  maintaining  the  resumption  act  in 
its  integrity,  but  also  upon  such  other  legislation  as  is  necessary  to 
secure  the  withdrawal  of  greenbacks  slowly  but  surely. 

It  is  moreover  re- assuring  to  recall  the  perfect  unanimity  of  public 
sentiment  in  respect  to  the  true  character  of  irredeemable  paper 
when  the  legal-tender  notes  were  first  issued. 

The  Government,  charged  with  the  national  life,  in  the  darkest 
hour,  without  money  and  without  credit,  shut  up  the  Constitution, 
and  seized  the  only  weapon  within  reach,  as  a  man  for  want  of  a 
gun  might  seize  dynamite  and  hurl  it  in  bulk  at  the  head  of  a  burglar 
attacking  his  house  at  midnight. 

Then  all  intelligent  men  in  both  of  the  great  political  parties  de- 
plored the  use  of  legal-tender.  The  party  immediately  responsible 
for  Government  frankly  appealed  to  history,  warning  the  people 
against  the  dangers  we  now  realize,  urging  them  at  the  same  time  to 
avert  such  dangers  by  cheerful  submission  to  taxation. 

The  party  opposed  to  Government,  the  democratic  party,  strenu- 
ously opposed  the  issue  of  greenbacks  to  the  last,  and  the  recorded 
fact  that  when  the  bill  of  February  25,  1862,  authorizing  their  issue 
passed  the  House  of  Representatives  but  one  democrat  voted  for  it, 
is  a  withering  comment  upon  the  present  attitude  of  leading  demo- 
crats in  several  States.  Mr.  Pendleton,  then  a  Representative  from 
Ohio,  now  a  candidate  for  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  closed  a 
long  argument  in  this  House  to  show  that  the  Constitution  gave  no 
shadow  of  authority  for  the  issue  of  legal-tender,  even  though  the 
existence  of  the  nation  depended  thereon,  as  follows  : 

Let  gentlemen  heed  this  lesson  of  wisdom.  Let  them,  if  need  be,  tax  the  ener- 
gies and  wealth  of  the  country  sufficiently  to  restore  the  credit  of  the  Government. 
Let  them  borrow  whatever  money  in  addition  may  be  necessary— borrow  to  the 
full  extent  that  may  be  necessary — and  let  us  adhere  rigidly,  firmly,  consistently, 
persistently,  and  to  the  end,  to  the  principle,  of  refusing  to  surrender  that  cur- 


9 


rency  which  tho  Constitution  has  given  us,  and  in  the  maintenance  of  which  this 
Government  has  never  yet  for  one  moment  wavered. 

This  lesson  by  Mr.  Pendleton  is  of  great  interest  to  the  country  and 
exactly  fits  our  present  circumstances. 

When  he  first  delivered  it,  our  ( 'onstitution  was  in  ruins;  and  the 
only  question  then  was,  How  shall  it  he  restored  !  All  patriotic  peo- 
ple were  then  struggling  by  all  means  to  restore  it.  They  succeeded. 
The  Constitution  is  safe  now,  and  every  word  of  Mr.  Pendleton's 
lesson  may  he  applied  with  great  force  and  advantage.  Especially 
so,  as  his  record  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  with  his  late 
speeches  in  Ohio  show  that  he  himself  is  a  victim  of  the  popular 
greenback  delusion,  which  no  longer  hesitates  to  attack  the  national 
iutegrity. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  believe  that  the  greenback  is  the  most  powerful  en- 
emy our  country  has  ever  encountered,  slavery  only  excepted.  I  wish 
1  were  master  of  words  to  express  its  true  character.  It  is  not  money, 
but  a  device.  It  does  not  pretend  to  represent  capital  or  labor.  It 
is  debt,  representing  the  exigency  of  a  great  civil  war.  It  is  a  device 
in  its  nature  and  in  its  influence  on  mankind,  precisely  like  the  paper- 
money  devices  of  the  days  of  our  colonial  dependence  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century;  of  John  Law's  Mississippi  scheme: 
the  assignat  of  the  French  revolution,  and  the  continental  money  of 
our  own  revolutionary  times. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  these  several  paper-money  de- 
lusions to  warrant  the  belief  that  the  greenback  will  ever  be  fully 
paid.  On  the  contrary  all  their  traditions  point  to  repudiation,  and 
current  events  point  the  same  way.  We  have  very  recently  seen  Mr. 
Pendleton,  for  example,  in  pursuit  of  votes,  hending  to  the  subtle 
and  seductive  power  of  the  greenback  ;  and  on  Monday  week  one 
hundred  and  sixty-four  members  of  this  deliberative  (!)  body,  inclose 
communion  with  the  friends  of  the  bill  we  are  considering,  without 
one  moment's  hesitation,  voted  that  a  bit  of  silver  worth  that  day 
ninety-two  cents  and  to-day  about  ninety  cents  and  liable  to  be  worth 
no  more  than  eighty-five  cents  next  week,  shall  henceforth  be  a  law- 
ful dollar  in  this  country  ;  and,  in  effect,  that  gold  shall  be  known  no 
more  forever  in  our  currency!  If  that  is  not  square  and  downright  re- 
pudiation, what  is  ?  Shall  the  power  which  so  declared  a  lawfuldollar 
on  Monday  hesitate  to  declare  ten  cents  a  lawful  dollar  when  the 
pretext  and  exigency  shall  arise  ?  Edmund  Burke  about  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago  proposed  an  emission  of  base  coin  for  the 
American  colonies  to  relieve  them  of  a  currency  delusion,  and  history 
repeats  itself  to-day  in  a  proposition  lately  submitted  to  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  to  issue  four  hundred  millions  of  "  goloid" — if 
any  one  knows  what  that  is. 

In  the  presence  of  these  facts  I  denounce— in  words  I  have  recently 
uttered  in  another  place — the  greenback  in  place  of  money  as  a  fraud. 
It  is  a  sham.  It  familiarizes  the  individual  and  public  conscience 
with  shams.  It  has  muddied  all  our  springs  of  honest  thrift  and  solid 
enterprise,  confused  and  misled  the  public  judgment,  sapped  the  cour- 
age and  wisdom  of  the  Federal  Treasury,  and  given  immense  comfort 


Mr.  Speaker,  it  cannot  and  will  not  be  denied  that  the  indications 
all  point  to  the  greenback  as  the  future  shibboleth  and  rallying  cry 
of  the  most  aggressive,  vicious  elements  of  society  throughout  the 
land. 

How,  then,  shall  we  dispose  of  the  greenback,  and  uproot  the  mis- 
chief of  it  ? 


10 


The  substitute  I  have  offered  for  the  pending  bill  will  do  it  as  by 
magic.  It  will  do  it  efficiently  and  instantly,  without  alarm  or  harm 
to  any  one.  If  adopted,  gold  and  bank-notes  will  be  equal  in  value  before 
the  executive  ink  is  dry.  It  is  the  original  and  fundamental  principle 
underlying  the  legal-tender  act.  No  other  method  of  paying  the 
forced  loan  was  ever  talked  about  by  any  clear-headed  man  of  either 
party  for  years.  It  has  ever  been,  and  is  now,  advocated  as  the  only 
practicable  method  by  the  most  distinguished  political  economists 
and  eminent  merchants  in  our  country.  It  has  been  so  recognized 
again  and  again  by  the  present  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  as  it  was 
by  two  of  his  immediate  predecessors,  aud  the  principal  argument  we 
hear  against  it  is  the  scandalous  one  that  funding  is  unpopular. 

It  is  well  known  now  that  President  Grant  spent  the  very  last 
hours  of  his  administration  in  an  earnest  effort  to  secure  the  sub- 
stance of  this  proposed  substitute  to  the  pending  bill,  as  the  crown- 
ing achievement  of  his  civil  career. 

It  is  easy  to  show  that  funding  at  4  per  cent,  cannot  lead  to  rapid 
or  hurtful  contraction.  Beyond  narrow  limits,  gold  will  take  the 
place  of  greenbacks  as  they  are  funded.  The  laws  of  trade  and 
untrauimoled  commerce  can  be  relied  upon  under  this  simple  substi- 
tute, and  they  will  for  the  first  time  in  fifteen  years  re-assert  their 
authority.  It  will  immediately  utilize  our  present  stock  of  mer- 
chandise of  gold,  converting  it  with  all  fresh  gold  products  into 
active  and  useful  currency.  Can  anything  be  more  inviting  or  re- 
assuring than  that  ? 

Are  we  to  renounce  the  truth  because  it  is  for  the  moment  obscured 
by  the  clamor  of  ignorant  and  selfish  men  ?  Can  we  restore  confi- 
dence to  capital  by  a  new  device  ?  Can  we  hope  for  general  employ- 
ment of  labor  without  a  restoration  of  confidence  ? 

Funding  is  no  device  or  mere  contrivance.  It  is  the  truth  of 
straightforward  common  sense ;  precisely  that,  and  nothing  more. 
It  stands  firm  as  granite  mountains,  buttressed  by  the  best  com- 
mercial sense  and  highest  authorities  in  the  world. 

Mr.  Speaker,  we  are  a  spectacle  to-day  which  future  historians 
may  describe  with  weeping  and  amazement. 

After  a  dire  national  calamity ;  after  the  prodigious  cost,  waste, 
and  suffering  inseparable  from  fifteen  years  of  war  and  irredeemable 
paper  money,  we  stand  in  the  very  crisis  of  our  distress  aud  disaster 
with  a  boundless  and  brilliant  starlit  horizon  just  in  front  of  us. 
The  question  we  have  to  answer  is  this  :  Shall  the  great  Government 
of  the  United  States,  in  this  supreme  moment,  turn  away  from  its 
own  appointed,  feasible,  and  honorable  remedy,  after  strange  gods, 
to  plunge  into  a  new  and  limitless  abyss  of  cowardice  and  shame  ? 
That  is  the  question  I  submit. 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  desire  to  place  myself  in  close  rela- 
tions with  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  [Mr.  Ewing.]  I  have  four 
questions  to  ask  him,  which  I  respectfully  request  him  to  answer  to 
his  own  conscience,  to  his  people,  to  my  people,  and  to  the  people  of 
the  whole  country,  whenever  he  shall  speak  for  his  bill  on  this  floor. 

First.  If  I  owe  the  gentleman  a  sum  of  money,  which  I  have  prom- 
ised by  note  of  hand  to  pay  on  the  1st  day  of  January,  1879,  can  I, 
with  plenty  of  means,  send  him  formal  notice  to-morrow  that  I  will 
not  pay  him,  and  return  here  to  meet  honest  men,  uu veiled  ? 

Second.  Here  again  is  a  promise  to  pay  $10  by  the  Government  of 
the  United  States.  The  day  for  its  payment  has  been  fixed  by  law. 
How  can  the  Government  give  me  notice  that  it  will  not  pay  me, 
without  disgrace  and  shame  ? 


11 


Third.  C;in  this  great  Government  aftbrd  to  risk  oven  a  construct- 
ive imputation  of  dishonesty  ! 

Fourth.  How  and  why  is  it  that  all  well-dressed  gamblers,  default- 
ers, and  repudiators  in  this  hroad  land  applaud  to  the  echo  the  gen- 
tleman's hill ! 

I  ask  permission  to  print  as  a  postscript  to  my  remarks  a  brief  and 
decisive  utterance  of  my  distinguished  colleague  [Mr.  HEWITT]  in 
favor  of  funding  the  greenbacks,  which  I  cut  from  a  letter  of  his 
written  for  the  press  a  few  months  ago;  and  also  some  historical 
scraps  referring  to  our  earliest  paper-money  delusion  which  are  of 
interest  to  all  who  desire  to  investigate  the  subject: 

The  legal-tender  notes  are  an  overdue  debt;  it  is  a  disgrace  to  the  people  of  this 
country  that  the  payment  of  this  deht  should  not  have  been  made  long  since.  If 
the  original  privilege  of  funding  these  notes  in  G  per  cent,  bonds  had  not  been  re- 
pealed, the  debt  would  have  been  paid  within  twelve  months  after  the  close  of  the 
war. 

And  again  : 

To-day,  if  they  were  made  fundable  in  a  4£  per  cent,  currency  bond,  they  would 
all  be  paid  and  might  all  be  canceled  within  twelve  months. 

[From  Mr.  Bancroft's  history.] 

The  credit  of  the  colonies  was  invoked  in  behalf  of  borrowers.  The  first  emis- 
sions of  provincial  paper  had  their  origin  in  the  immediate  necessities  of  Govern- 
ment. 

*  *  *  -   *  *  *  * 

In  1712  South  Carolina  issued  at  a  low  rate  of  interest  on  the  mortgage  of  lands 
"a  bank"  of  £48,000. 

In  1714  Massachusetts  authorized  an  emission  of  £50,000,  to  be  paid  back  in  five 
annual  installments.  The  debts  were  not  thus  paid  back ;  but  an  increased  clamor 
was  raised  for  greater  emissions.  In  1710  an  additional  issue  of  £100,000  was  made, 
and  the  scarcity  of  money  was  more  and  more  complained  of.  All  the  silver  money 
Avas  sent  to  Great  Britain  to  pay  debts,  and  yet  the  system  was  imitated  in  the 
other  colonies. 

Franklin,  who  afterward  perceived  its  evil  tendencies,  assisted  in  1723  in  intro- 
ducing it  into  Pennsylvania,  where  silver  had  circulated ;  and  the  complaint  was 
soon  heard  that  "they  had  very  little  gold  and  silver." 

Rhode  Island  in  1721  "issued  a  bank  of  £40,000,"  on  which  the  interest  was  pay- 
able in  hemp  or  flax. 

The  first  effects  of  the  unreal  enlargement  of  the  currency  appeared  beneficial, 
and  men  rejoiced  in  the  seeming  impulse  given  to  trade.  It  was  presently  found 
that  specie  was  repelled  from  the  country  by  the  system ;  that  the  paper  furnished 
but  a  depreciated  currency,  fluctuating  in  value  with  every  new  emission;  *  *  * 
that  the  increase  of  paper,  far  from  remedying  the  scarcity  of  money,  excited  a 
thirst  for  new  issues;  and,  finally,  that  commerce  was  corrupted  in  its  sources  by 
the  uncertainty  attending  the  expressions  of  value  in  every  contract. 

In  1738  the  New  England  exxrrency  was  worth  one  hundred  for  five  hundred ;  that 
of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland,  one  hundred  for  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  or  seventy  or  two  hundred  ;  South  Carolina,  one  for  eight;  North 
Carolina,  one  for  fourteen  in  London,  one  for  ten  in  the  colony.  And  yet  the  policy 
was  not  repudiated. 


November  14,  1877. 
Mr.  CHITTENDEN.    I  ask  for  half  a  minute. 

Mr.  DOUGLAS.  I  object.  Not  half  a  minute  to  the  "  wrecker." 
[Laughter.] 

Mr.  CHITTENDEN.  I  am  indebted  for  half  a  minute  to  my  friend 
from  New  Jersey,  [Mr.  Hardenbergh,]  who  is  next  entitled  to  the 
floor. 

The  SPEAKER  pro  tempore,  (Mr.  Eden.)  The  House  will  come  to 
order. 


12 


Mr.  TURNER.  I  move  that  we  adjourn  for  some  minutes  until 
some  restoratives  can  be  supplied  to  the  corpse  from  New  York. 
[Laughter.] 

Mr.  CHITTENDEN.    Mr.  Speaker  

Mr.  COX,  of  New  York.  I  hope  my  colleague  will  have  a  fair  hear- 
ing as  a  Representative  of  the  people. 

Mr.  TOWNSEND,  of  New  York.  The  favor  was  granted  to  the 
gentleman  from  Georgia  [Mr.  FeltonJ  of  an  extension  of  his  time, 
and  the  privilege  should  be  granted  to  the  gentleman  from  New  York 
to  reply. 

Mr.  HARDENBERGH.    I  yield  the  gentleman  three  minutes. 

Mr.  TOWNSEND,  of  New  York.    He  ought  to  have  his  own  time. 

Mr.  HARDENBERGH.  I  ask  unanimous  consent  that  the  gentle- 
man from  New  York  may  have  three  minutes  of  my  time  to  make  a 
personal  explanation. 

The  SPEAKER  pro  tempore.  The  gentleman  can  yield  him  a  por- 
tion of  his  time. 

Mr.  HARDENBERGH.    I  vield  him  three  minutes. 

Mr.  CHITTENDEN.  I  wiil  not  return  to  the  argument.  There  is 
no  man  who  knows  my  life  who  does  not  know  that  when  I  went  to 
the  unusual  place  of  the  Clerk's  desk  to  speak  yesterday,  I  went  to 
speak  the  truth  according  as  I  understand  it.  The  gentleman  from 
Georgia  has  referred  to  me  as  a  captalist — if  I  understood  him  cor- 
rectly— as  owning  Government  bonds,  and  therefore  personally  inter- 
ested in  this  question.  It  is  about  eight  years,  Mr.  Speaker,  since  I 
have  held  or  owned  a  Government  bond;  and,  although  I  spoke  fa- 
vorably yesterday  of  national  banks,  I  parted  with  my  last  share  of 
stock  in  national  banks  more  than  five  years  ago. 

I  do  not  make  this  statement  to  conciliate  anybody  ;  it  is  nobody's 
business  but  my  own ;  but  I  make  it  to  explode  and  expose  to  the 
world  the  fallacies  and  illusions  which  obscure  this  question — for  the 
question  before  this  House  is  before  the  world.  It  is  a  question  now 
whether  the  credit,  and  honor,  and  integrity  of  the  United  States 
shall  be  sacrificed  in  the  presence  of  all  mankind  and  sunk  into  a 
bottomless  pit  of  disgrace ! 

I  therefore  say  that  any  man  that  aims  blows  at  me  as  a  holder  of 
Government  securities  or  as  being  interested  in  the  national  banks 
mistakes  the  mark.  The  bonds  I  hold  are  to  a  large  extent  those  of 
defaulting  railroads  and  States,  and  my  own  case  fairly  represents  the 
condition  of  my  constituents.  I  have  not  come  here,  sir,  without  ex- 
perience and  knowledge  of  this  question  of  currency.  I  have  not 
come  here  and  dared  to  utter  anything  on  this  subject  that  I  have  not 
carefully  considered.  If  I  had  time  I  could  expose  the  fallacies,  the 
errors,  and  the  absurdities  of  the  last  speaker,  so  that  no  man  who  is 
capable  of  forming  an  honest  judicial  opinion  upon  any  great  ques- 
tion could  possibly  make  any  mistake  about  this  one. 

There  has  never  been  such  mimicry  of  legislation  as  was  witnessed 
on  this  floor  November  4.  There  never  was  any  subject  of  equal 
magnitude  discussed  by  a  deliberative  body  or  passed  upon  by  a 
deliberative  body  in  which  there  was  so  much  of  error,  so  much 
of  ignorance,  so  much  of  prejudice  and  passion,  so  much  of  that 
spirit,  which,  unrestrained,  will  assuredly  destroy  the  integrity  and 
the  peace  of  this  nation  ;  there  never  was  any  question  discussed  here 
in  which  there  was  so  much  said  that  was  absolutely  wrong,  abso- 
lutely ridiculous,  ruinous,  leading  only  to  utter  dishonor.  [Ap- 
plause.] 


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